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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25984165">Disowned</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/RelicIron/pseuds/RelicIron'>RelicIron</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Mercenary [11]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Canon-Typical Violence, Hurt/Comfort, Imperial Saboteur, Injury, M/M, Mirialan Language, Onderon (Star Wars), also that trope where you admit you're in love while having a concussion, but in a language your partner doesn't understand, that's right Caden's trilingual</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 11:48:40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,041</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25984165</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/RelicIron/pseuds/RelicIron</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Arcann learns why Caden never talks about his family.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Arcann/Male Bounty Hunter (Star Wars)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Mercenary [11]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1833691</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>27</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Disowned</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>My version of the Mirialan language is adapted from the one on the Coruscant Translator, the translations will be at the bottom.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>They’re somewhere on Onderon, trying to find that fool king’s family. Arcann had been a terrible ruler by his own admission, more focused on accumulating power through war and conquest rather than seeing to the needs of his own people, but this Onderonian king almost worse. Sitting in the lap of luxury having never felt hardship for a single day in his life, completely ignorant and uncaring of the struggles of his people as he burdens them further to prop up his imaginary notions of being a powerful and respected leader. At the very least Arcann knew what it was like to be in the trenches, to smell the ozone of blaster fire and feel its burn, at least he’d been respected, through fear yes, but respected none the less. Instead this fool is sending two of the most powerful men in the galaxy to go fetch his cousins like they’re some sort of heavily armed nannies.</p>
<p>Caden has grumbled nearly the entire way, about the Empire’s games that he’s forced to participate in AGAIN, about his frustration with Balkar pushing him into this, about this moron of a king he’s having to pretend to grovel to, and all Arcann can do is stroke a hand down the back of his neck, sticky with sweat in the humidity, and try to comfort him as best he can.</p>
<p>They’re nearly there when Caden’s comm goes off.</p>
<p>It’s Theron, with a harried look on his face.</p>
<p>“Hey, Commander, you remember that frequency you wanted me to keep an eye on?”</p>
<p>Caden stops dead in his tracks.</p>
<p>“Well, uh, I’ve intercepted a call, I’ll include the coordinates.”</p>
<p>Theron’s image is quickly replaced by a Republic soldier, a woman by the looks of it, with blue officer stripes running across her armor.</p>
<p>“This is the 205<sup>th</sup> requesting reinforcements, the Imps have got us cornered near the river! They’ve got heavy mechs and sith- dammit corporal, keep them from breaking through the other side!- we won’t last much longer!”</p>
<p>The transmission cuts out and Caden is rigid beside them, something like fear on his face.</p>
<p>“Dammit!” he snarls and immediately about-faces and breaks into a dead run.</p>
<p>“Caden, what-?”</p>
<p>“We’re saving them,” he bites out over his shoulder.</p>
<p>“They’re Republic, Balkar won’t-”</p>
<p>“Balkar can eat my entire ass, that’s my SISTER!”</p>
<p>Arcann nearly stumbles as he follows behind him.</p>
<p>Caden’s sister?!</p>
<p>He never spoke of his family before, and whenever asked he’d cringe away and hurriedly change the subject. It was clearly a sore spot, so Arcann had never brought it up, assuming they had died or something of the sort.</p>
<p>He recalled the nightmare he’d seen after they’d taken the throne. Caden’s fears had been brought to the forefront of his mind while Arcann had accidentally left himself unguarded. The earliest part he’d seen had been Caden serving in the Republic army, and if his sister was still there after his departure and eventual employment by the Empire, then…</p>
<p>He could be about to see a very happy reunion, or a very unhappy one.</p>
<p>And going by the tension in Caden’s shoulders, Arcann was betting on the later.</p>
<p>They break through the treeline near the coordinates to find the Republic squad outnumbered and pinned against the rocks near the river’s shore as the Imperial troops continued to advance.</p>
<p>Caden doesn’t even break his stride as he roars at them to cease fire and retreat, but by the sneering look one of the Sith gives him, they either don’t know who he is or don’t care, and clearly think he is beneath them.</p>
<p>That one command is the only warning he gives before he’s bulldozing his way into the Imperial line with Arcann at his back. They definitely weren’t expecting them to attack. Caden’s mandalorian armor is as clear as day and the notorious hunters’ partnership with the Imperial aligned Alliance is well known to all. But it means that he and Caden are able to penetrate deep into the platoon before they can react.</p>
<p>The Republic forces clearly notice the chaos as there’s a brief pause before a faint call rings out.</p>
<p>“Open fire!”</p>
<p>The Imperials start dropping like flies, caught between the accidental pincer of Caden, himself, and the Republic until only the heavy mechs are left.</p>
<p>Caden’s jetpack whines to life and he rockets towards the one advancing on the Pub line, a cluster of missiles bursting free of his pack and whistling through the air ahead of him. He hits it a split second after they do, nearly knocking it off it’s spidery legs as it rocks from the impact.</p>
<p>Arcann slices through the legs of another mech, letting it keel over sideways before driving his saber up beneath it’s ‘head’ and into the central processor. Caden clearly has the same idea, as he easily slips beneath the swiveling turbo laser, bracing with his feet on it’s chassis and transferring his grip to one hand as he extends a plasma blade from his multi-tool and sinks it up to the hilt into the mech’s ‘neck’, twisting the blade as it gives a harsh synthesized screech until it sinks to the ground in a hail of sparks. It explodes as Arcann is moving on to the next one, and he’s treated to the view of Caden marching away from the flames like the embodiment of an ancient god of war, the glow shining off the V-shaped visor of his helmet. He nearly loses focus, and has to dodge a swipe from the second droid’s legs that comes too close for comfort. He brings it down and sees Caden climbing on yet another like an armored monkey-lizard before he notices out of the corner of his eye another mech take aim at it’s doomed fellow. He’s moving before he even realizes it, crying out a warning as he desperately tries to get close enough to pull Caden to him or push the droid away, Force screaming through his mind. Too slow, the mech fires and the droid Caden is hanging off of explodes in a hail of shrapnel and fire.</p>
<p>He screams and charges forward, letting the flaming wreckage serve as cover as he makes a beeline towards Caden. Blown nearly 20 feet by away the blast, he is crumpled on the ground. His helmet is cracked, the visor nearly shattered, and Arcann takes it off as quickly as he can without jostling his head too much. His knees nearly give out beneath him when he finds Caden still breathing despite the blood matting the long white hair near his temple.</p>
<p>He wants to grab him and run, find somewhere safe where he can bring the healing his mother taught him to bear until Caden wakes up again. But as a handful of smaller battle droids advance through the smoke, he finds he’s out of time. He can only stand then and deflect their fire in an effort to protect him, unable to advance on the machines for fear of leaving Caden open to attack.</p>
<p>It’s an untenable situation, and his mind is racing desperately for a solution when he hears a shout behind him and a wall of blaster fire flies passed to shred into the droids. Metallic whines and shrieks fill the air and he feels another presence come up behind him. He can’t spare more than a glance, but he sees the soldier from the holo kneel down and throw Caden over her shoulder in a fireman’s carry. With Caden being hauled towards safety, he’s free to fully engage the droids, and its barely a minute longer until the last one goes down.</p>
<p>He breathes for a moment, does his best to swallow down the blind panic that threatened to grip him, before hurrying to the meager barricade the Republic had erected.</p>
<p>He can sense the soldiers’ fear once he’s close enough to recognize, the feeling saturating the Force around them, and it takes effort not to bristle at the anger that follows on it’s heels.</p>
<p>Thankfully these men have sense enough to leave him alone and part easily for him to reach his Commander.</p>
<p>Caden’s still out, head pillowed on a canvas pack as the officer leans over him, trying to wipe off enough blood to see nature of the wound beneath. He tries not to shove her aside, but it’s a close thing, and he still probably uses more force than he should. She snarls at him through the modulation of her helmet, only to stop short when she sees who he is.</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter. He carefully spreads his fingers out on either side of Caden’s head, thumbs settling at his temples and presses gentle tendrils of the Force into his skull.</p>
<p>The barrel of a blaster pushes against his forehead.</p>
<p>“Drop him, you <em>fucking </em><em><b>monster</b></em>,” she hisses.</p>
<p>“His brain is bleeding, so you’ll have to shoot me first,” he growls back, too focused to risk looking away for a second.</p>
<p>He hears her curse beside him, and while he no longer feels the muzzle against his head, he’s not foolish enough to believe she’s put it away.</p>
<p>It’s several very long, very tense minutes, before Caden grunts and slowly opens his eyes.</p>
<p>“Sá vhie?” he rasps, blinking blearily up at Arcann.</p>
<p>He hears the woman choke at his side.</p>
<p>Arcann’s heard him speak it enough to recognize Common Mirialan, but he doesn’t know what he said.</p>
<p>“P’á vhie?!” she says incredulously, before struggling her helmet off.</p>
<p>She looks strikingly similar to her brother. Same hair and skin color, same wide bridged nose and full lips, her gold eyes narrowed in anger.</p>
<p>Caden seems to sober up as soon as he sees her.</p>
<p>“Good t’ see you too, Aela,” he says with a sigh.</p>
<p>“Oh you don’t get to say that, yaochuwun’ka para!” she growls, “Why are you here with that tom’ik q’nura?!” She spits the words at Arcann with a glare.</p>
<p>“He’s not the same man anymore,” he says and Arcann helps him sit up with a careful hand between his shoulders. His sister must have removed the jetpack, as it’s sitting behind her by her boots.</p>
<p>“Yeah, sure he is, I guess birds of a feather flock together huh?”</p>
<p>He looks so tired.</p>
<p>“Why the hell are you here?” Her throat is starting to flush with anger.</p>
<p>“Told my people t’ keep an eye on you, make sure you were safe.”</p>
<p>Something passes behind her eyes before the rage covers it back up.</p>
<p>“I told you, yailaba and yaidaba <em>told you</em>, to never contact us again!” she snaps.</p>
<p>He can feel the other soldiers closing in on them and Arcann lets his hand slip towards his lightsaber.</p>
<p>Caden laughs bitterly, “Yeah, cause I’m really gonna stand by ‘n let my lil’ sister get vaporized.”</p>
<p>“I don’t need you looking out for me, <b>you’re not my brother anymore</b>!”</p>
<p>Caden flinches like he’s been slapped and Arcann tightens his hold on him.</p>
<p>“She’s safe, we should leave before more Imperials arrive,” he murmurs in Caden’s ear. The tension is rising in the remnants of her squad and he refuses to let Caden continue to subject himself to this.</p>
<p>“Yeah,” he nods, shakily, “Yeah… help me up.”</p>
<p>Something like regret flickers across her face as Arcann hauls him to his feet, pulling an arm across his shoulders to take Caden’s weight and using the Force to pull the jetpack into his free hand.</p>
<p>“Caden-”</p>
<p>“<b>No</b> Aela, just… go… before more Imps show up. I’m too banged up t’ help you a second time.”</p>
<p>He doesn’t look back as they limp away, and Aela doesn’t pursue them, but at the last moment before they’re out of earshot, he turns his head just enough to speak over his shoulder.</p>
<p>“P’u khoeit dá khoe sá para.”</p>
<p>She doesn’t move and they leave her and her troops behind.</p>
<p>Arcann wants to give him a reassuring squeeze, to bundle him up and spirit him away some place where nothing will ever hurt him again, but Caden has broken ribs and they’re in a war, so all he can do is dip his head and press a kiss to his sweaty temple and feel Caden’s hand grip his shoulder a little tighter in response.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Sá vhie? – My heart?<br/>P’á vhie?! - Your heart?!<br/>yaochuwun’ka para – traitor brother<br/>tom’ik q’nura – fucking butcher<br/>yailaba and yaidaba – mom and dad<br/>P’u khoeit dá khoe sá para. – You will always be my sister.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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